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A patient waits in the hallway for a room to open up in the emergency room at Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston on July 27.
Reuters

But OFA’s big stick — which includes running ads in some Democrats’ districts — becomes less intimidating with each point shaved from the president’s popularity. And the GOP is becoming bolder in its attacks on the White House.

3. The message war

The Republicans have a relatively easy task in fighting health care reform — paint a vision of a post-reform health care apocalypse, rationed services and power-mad government bureaucrats taking away individual choice and even determining the quality of end-of-life care for seniors.

The two main Democratic points — that reforms will save money and insure the 47 million uninsured — haven’t taken hold, with only 42 percent of Americans now saying Obama’s blueprint for reform is a bad idea.

The White House’s cost-cutting arguments have suffered staggering setbacks at the hand of the Congressional Budget Office, which estimated that the plans emerging from key committees would result in a fraction of their estimated savings.

And for all their talk about avoiding the Clintons’ mistakes in 1993-94, the Obama White House finds itself with precisely the same dilemma when it comes to messaging: how to sell a plan whose details are largely undetermined.

While the Democrats have wallowed in the theoretical, the Republican message has been bracingly concrete — and scary.

“It’s as if every single American gets up in the morning, walks over to the window, and tosses two dollars out into the wind, every day for the next 10 years,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) claimed during a floor speech two weeks ago.

4. Who will come to the tea parties?

Anti-reform protesters, many of them veterans from the winter and spring tea party protests, are promising to swamp Democrats’ districts with a wave of anti-reform protest over the recess.

The threat is real, and Democrats, especially those in battleground districts, are more than a little rattled. Just as the “birthers” threaten to cause problems for GOP members over the break, conservative protesters have proven skilled in sabotaging their targets by crashing town halls and other public events, drowning out Democratic messages.

The net result is a chill: Democrats are holding smaller events with handpicked crowds.

But there’s a potential downside for Republicans, too.

Some of the protesters have crossed the line from dissent into abusiveness, and some Republican strategists, while excited by the prospects of an insurgency over the recess, have been alarmed by a smattering of ugly recent incidents.

The worst: One protester hung an effigy of Rep. Frank Kratovil Jr. (D-Md.) outside his Eastern Shore district office last week.

“We don’t condone violence in any way,” wrote the editor of operationembarrass-yourcongressman.com, a site that posts members’ public events and suggests a slate of anti-health care reform queries for protesters.

Baucus, intent on winning over three committee Republicans — who are, in turn, intent on killing the public option — has scrapped his three-day annual fundraiser back in Montana to continue working through the break.

He’s also given himself a Sept. 15 deadline — to assuage a rising revolt from Democratic liberals, who are now talking openly about staging secret-ballot committee elections every two years to keep senators like Baucus from accruing too much influence.

Still, Baucus seems boxed in by the committee Republicans, whom Democrats accuse of stalling, and pro-Obama liberals, who don’t have the 60 votes to pass a plan.

One solution that’s getting a second look is reconciliation — the widely disdained process by which the Senate passes budget-related legislation through a simple majority vote.

Readers' Comments (593)

""""Despite a hard sell from the hard left, the socialist vision of “providing” for the poor is not taking root in America. Simply put, most folks support making your own way and do not believe the feds should create massive entitlements.""""""

I did like the fact you noted the real growing influence of the Tea Party Movement. Something which some just do not want to even admit exists..... so they ridicule it instead.

The health insurance industry while being quite implicit in cost gouging is still much better than the government. To reform health care first reform tort law. There is absolutely NO need for some idiot with an extra stitch to receive a million dollars. Just think if HALF of all the money going into health insurance was not going to mal practice insurance in one way or another costs would come down...... And yes half of most doctors salary now goes to mal practice, and yes even the big drug companies pay a huge price in insurance. This is the reason why we do not have many vaccine providers. Yet these idiot attorney DIMS still do not see this, they want the indigent to sue to become wealthy. Ever wonder how Edwards afforded a 24 thousand sq ft home. Take heart in the fact that he was an ambulance chasing class action lawyer who made 20% or more of each verdict while the 1000's of clients received a few dollars each. Yup folks aint the democrats grand. Medicare foe all and don't forget death, I mean health counseling for everyone over 40....... Intrusion anyone?

Why the heck should he DNC give a rat's patooty in supporting the Blue Dogs? They do not represent Democratic principles; the party would be far better off if these morons just changed parties - then at least we know where they really stand. And since when is the public option "controversial?" After all, that is the core of health care reform; without a public option any reform is simply window dressing for a system already bought and sold by the HMOs and medical insurance industries.

Blast from the past: Ehrlichman to President Nixon in 1971: “Edgar Kaiser (of now HMO Kaiser Permanente) is running his Permanente deal for profit. And the reason that he can … the reason he can do it … I had Edgar Kaiser come in … talk to me about this and I went into it in some depth. All the incentives are toward less medical care, because the less care they give them, the more money they make.”

The lobbyist-run groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, which orchestrated the anti-Obama tea parties earlier this year, are now pursuing an aggressive strategy to create an image of mass public opposition to health care and clean energy reform. A leaked memo from Bob MacGuffie, a volunteer with the FreedomWorks website Tea Party Patriots, details how members should be infiltrating town halls and harassing Democratic members of Congress:

– Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: “Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up. The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington.”

– Be Disruptive Early And Often: “You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early.”

– Try To “Rattle Him,” Not Have An Intelligent Debate: “The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions.”

The memo above also resembles the talking points being distributed by FreedomWorks for pushing an anti-health reform assault all summer. Patients United, a front group maintained by Americans for Prosperity, is currently busing people all over the country for more protests against Democratic members. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), chairman of the NRCC, has endorsed the strategy, telling the Politico the days of civil town halls are now “over.”

Meanwhile, AHIP, the trade group and lobbying juggernaut representing the health insurance industry is sending staffers to monitor town halls and other right-wing front groups are stepping up their ad campaign to smear reform efforts. The strategy for defeating reform — recently outlined by an influential lobbyist to the Hill newspaper as “delay” then “kill” — is becoming apparent. By delaying a vote until after the August recess, lobbyists are now seizing upon recess town halls as opportunities to ambush lawmakers and fool them into believing there is wide opposition to reform.

Why the heck should he DNC give a rat's patooty in supporting the Blue Dogs? They do not represent Democratic principles; the party would be far better off if these morons just changed parties - then at least we know where they really stand. And since when is the public option "controversial?" After all, that is the core of health care reform; without a public option any reform is simply window dressing for a system already bought and sold by the HMOs and medical insurance industries.

Blast from the past: Ehrlichman to President Nixon in 1971: “Edgar Kaiser (of now HMO Kaiser Permanente) is running his Permanente deal for profit. And the reason that he can … the reason he can do it … I had Edgar Kaiser come in … talk to me about this and I went into it in some depth. All the incentives are toward less medical care, because the less care they give them, the more money they make.”

Yea, Watch the current Congress run and hide! They know what they are doing and they know America is not pleased with the Alcoholic behavior. Most Alcoholics show these traits

Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity.

Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.

Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.

Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.

Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.

We pay $188,000.00 every time Nazi Piglosi flies home in a US military jet.

Wow, been a while since that falsehood has had to be debunked. Ed must have been cleaning out his conspiracy theories folder this weekend. Anyway, it's not true (pretty much goes without saying since Ed said it). http://www.snopes.com/politics...

Wow, been a while since that falsehood has had to be debunked. Ed must have been cleaning out his conspiracy theories folder this weekend. Anyway, it's not true (pretty much goes without saying since Ed said it). http://www.snopes.com/politics...

Mybe the 188,000 is the wrong amount, so how much does it cost. 100,000?

Why do the Democrats care about the Blue Dogs? There are 51 of them. That's a lot of votes to lose on the House floor. The Blue Dogs represent conservative districts and could lose their seats in Congress over this program. The Democrats had better worry more about holding their own votes in the House and Senate. With every day that goes by, moderate Senate Democrats are seeing their future before them.

Mybe the 188,000 is the wrong amount, so how much does it cost. 100,000?

President Bush ordered the Speaker of the House to stop flying commercially after Sept 11. Pentagon says Pelosi takes the smallest, most efficient military plane that is able to get her from Washington to San Francisco without stopping to refuel. Therefore it doesn't matter how much it costs (although the Snopes articles explicitly debunks a rumor that it costs $60,000 each way). Point is, she does it in the most economical way that meets both the presidential order and Pentagon security requirements. But why bring up a conspiracy theory from 2007? Shouldn't you be attacking her for supporting a health care reform plan that has a secret agenda to kill old people?

When I was a young man, our family physician handled his practice all by himself. The last time I visited a doctor, he had a staff of 6 people, half of which were involved with nothing but handling insurance industry documentation. Of all the myriad different insurance applications there are in the world, nothing has the perverse incentives of the so-called healthcare industry. It's a gambling consortium and, in the end, the house always wins. Whatever the drawbacks of systems run by the federal government, they pale in comparison to the systemic perverse incentives of the healthcare industry.

The healthcare world is upside down. The more likely a person is to require medical attention, for example in the case of pre-existing conditions, the less likely that person is to be able to be covered. And institutional bureaucrats are far worse than government bureaucrats, because goverment bureaucrats don't make more money by refusing your claims. The management of health insurance companies are beholden to themselves and their stockholders - not to their customers. If anybody comes between a physician and a patient, it's the healthcare insurance provider - and any other assertion is a lie.